“How did you make the connection between me and Amanda?” She lowered her lashes in embarrassment.
“I overheard.” This time, I have a son. You had one last time, too. Forgetting wasn’t an option for either of them.
“I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you about Jeff and how Amanda looked me up on purpose, but the words wouldn’t come.”
They had now because circumstances had forced her to speak. If she’d had her way, she’d probably have maintained her silence, leaving him in the dark.
She shrugged. “Now you know. But there’s more.”
Griff remained silent, sensing any word from him might cause her to clam up once again. He needed the truth. All of it.
“No matter what you think of me after this, there’s something you have to know.”
He gazed at her face. The flush that covered her cheeks might have been from the heat of the bath, but he sensed something more. “What?”
“I love you,” she whispered. “I wasn’t lying this morning. I love you both, you and Alix. I think I have almost from the very beginning.” She smiled. “Despite the tragedy that brought you two together, you’re a lucky man. Family is a precious gift. And you’ve both given me so much.”
No more than she had given them, which made this all the more difficult. “Chelsie, I...” A soft but soapy finger over his lips cut him off.
“Don’t. Just listen.”
He nodded and she withdrew her hand. His tongue swiped over his lips, leaving the bitter taste of soap in its wake. He grimaced and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve.
She chuckled aloud, but there was no light dancing in her eyes. He missed her gentle touch, and the chill that seeped around him despite the heat in the bathroom frightened him more than he cared to admit.
“You already know I can’t handle. Amanda’s case because she’s married to my ex-husband. For me to take the case would be a definite conflict of interest and would jeopardize her right to fair representation.”
The matter-of-fact way she laid out the facts, the way she tried to appear composed and unaffected, was destroyed by the sheen of tears in her dark eyes. Griff thought of the bruises on Amanda’s arms and Jeff Sutton’s hard grip on Chelsie today. His gaze dropped to her white skin and he clenched his jaw.
“I’ll handle it.” With pleasure, he thought.
“Fairly?”
“Give me some credit. I might like to kill the bastard, but in a court of law, I’ll be fair.”
She nodded. “Good. I hope you’ll apply that same concept to what I have to say next, because this story isn’t your usual marriage, divorce, unhappily ever after.”
He glanced towards the tub and realized she’d begun to shiver, though she was too engrossed in thought to even notice. Reaching for the yellow robe on the back of the door, he held it out. “Should I give you a few minutes?”
“At this point, I think modesty is a little late, don’t you?”
As she stood, Griff looked away. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact source of his anxiety, but he couldn’t discount the nagging feelings, either. Sexual desire would only complicate things. When he glanced back, she was lifting the damp ends of her hair from beneath the collar of her robe.
He followed her into the living room, joining her on the couch. Entwining her slender fingers in his grasp, he said, “Talk to me.”
She sucked in a gulp of air and nodded. “When they admitted me to the hospital that night five years ago, the nurse who helped me into those awful dressing gowns noticed the bruises on my arms. After that, it wasn’t difficult to keep my husband away. The police sent a detective to take a statement. She said she’d come back the next day for me to sign an official version.”
“Sounds like standard procedure so far.” He hoped his casual acceptance, his nonchalant attitude would help her get through whatever she had to say.
“So far,” she agreed. “I was pregnant. I’d known for a while, but we’d been growing apart instead of together. I planned to tell him after the cocktail party that night. My big surprise,” she said with more than a touch of bitterness.
“What...”
“Please, this is hard enough. Just let me get through it, okay?” Her eyes filled with unshed tears, wrenching at his heart
“Okay.”
“Within a few hours of being admitted, I started having these awful cramps.” Her hand went to her stomach, covering her abdomen. She stared straight ahead, as if a mere glance in his direction would cause her to fall apart.
Without warning or invitation, a vision of Chelsie, pregnant with his child, rose in his mind. The image filled the empty spaces he hadn’t even realized were inside him.